This is my first time posting in the forums here. Im making a mech game, and my question is when making the mesh, would it be best to make each piece of the mech its own mesh, and use sockets to put the pieces together? Ex use a socket to join the upper arm to the torso, things like that? Im trying to learn how to animate these things. I can make the model… just need to learn to animate it. Some joints need to deform, like some elbows with an accordion style covering, others just need to rotate. Or would it be better to just animate it all as one piece in blender?
you could use sockets, but stacking skeletal meshes is prolly better if you ve got deformations goin on. You re also free to combine both techniques really. It comes down to how consitent you want your layou to be , ie 8 skel meshes all using the same anim blue print is clean and predictable. A socket for only the head makes it inconsitent. Alternativaly you could do all skel meshes for the base peices and maybe all sockets for all the armor pieces if thats a feature. So really the answer is you got choices, you ve just got some descisions to make